Idiot to Obnoxious

PS : All the views are mine, so I am sorry if you dont agree with them

Commonly known as the TV or Idiot Box (a name by which people tend to refer to it when irritated with it), the invention by a certain Mr. John Logie Baird has been a boon to human race and could count as the most useful invention after the Computer. It serves a lot of purposes ranging from increasing your knowledge, getting a lot of entertainment and to recently getting Brain Fucked! I dont have much idea about the kind of television they have in other countries, though can certainly claim to have an idea about the television in India which certainly seems to be going the rut way. Each and every new show which is aired these days seems to set a new bar of stupidity, only to be surpassed by a new show aired some time later.

The seeds of this stupidity were sown way back in 2000, when the Legendary show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi was aired on Star TV. I dont recall seeing the show in the beginning so cant comment much but it must have been sensible back then until stupidity took over and we started seeing ladies laden with kilos of jewellery, evil scheming ladies, multiple plastic surgeries, ages increasing by about 20 years in a single episode, 150 yr old people living a healthy life (refer Baa of KSBKBT) and all this kind of stupidity which was the norm of all such soaps, who reigned supreme on TV for about 6-7 years.

As we all know change is the law of nature, so the popularity of these daily soaps was overshadowed by a new genre, Reality shows! It all started with the copy of enlish reality shows like Fear Factor which can be bearable to a certain extent. Things seemed to be ok until the Indian TV industry started raking its own brains and come up with different type of reality shows, which is when the real stupidity started and we saw shows like Roadies (a bunch of crap filmed on some dumbassses), Indian Idol (a music show whose USP was the constant clashes between its judges instead of the participants) and the most stupid of them Splitsvilla (a show which did its bit is degrading women to the lowest pedestal(talking about the first season) with some 10-20 girls vying for attraction of 2 guys :|) then ofcourse there was dadagiri which didnt gain much popularity but was again a stupid concept which catapulted to fame with its judge slapping a guy and the guy slapping her back.

All these shows were stupid, idiotic and downright degrading but the line from Stupid to OBNOXIOUS has been crossed with the latest show on TV Sach Ka Saamna. I dont think there ever was a TV show as obnoxious as this one. Any adjective I could use would be insufficient to describe my mental state after watching this show, I had just heard something about Kambli saying sumthing about Sachin on this show so was a bit curious when my friends started streaming it on their system and saw the first episode. The only reaction I could garner after watching the episode was WHAT THE FUCK, what the bloody fuck! This is one of the most obnoxious thing I have ever seen on tv. (And I hope nothing comes to beat it)

Few of the questions asked in the show were
a) Did you ever want to kill your husband?
b) Did you ever wish to cheat your husband?
c) Are you in your marriage just because of your kids?
d) Would you have sex with some other person if your husband doesnt come to know about it?

There is no doubt that this show is gonna break many a families in India. All humans relationships survive because of a facade everybody wears and if you start removing this facade in front of national television then it surely is gonna ring a death knell for many happy lives. People can always argue that if you are so concerned about such things then you shouldnt come on the show. I agree and would definitely say that the participants who come to such shows are humans of lowest values, exposing their personal life for some cash is as low as anybody can get. But arent the director, producer and anchor of the show humans? Havent they got heart? Will they do anything for money? Would they remain happy and would they be able to sleep peaceful nights after hearing about some marriage which broke just because of their show!

But the biggest issue I have is with the moral police, Where the fuck are these guys when they should be active! They were all eager to curb a cartoon strip which wasnt doing any harm to the society, they had all drawn daggers when the issue was about gay affairs which again is an issue which just concerns two people! May be I am too early in raising my apprehensions, may be the self proclaimed Moral Police will step ahead and if this happens then for the first time, I would be happy 🙂 I dunno if there is any censorship in Indian television but if they can block shows on AXN which showed babes in bikinis and banned channels like FTV, then I would sincerely request them to ban this show before this stupidity starts getting out of hand!

Song of the Day :-  Keep the Customer Satisfied by Simon & Garfunkel

An Indian complains

Warning :  Can seem pretty senseless!!

We the Indians have a habit of complaining, we can’t stop complaining whenever we get a chance to do so. Whether it be about a passerby on the road who doesnt follow the traffic rule and Meri gaadi ke samne marne ke liye aa gaya tha, it be the kaam wali who wouldnt stop bunking, it be the, it may be about the amount of money these cricketers are earning from various advertisements instead of playin well and being the World Beaters basically we just like to complain and I myself being an Indian, am here with a complain of my own. And this time the complain is against the rules of this nation.

I am basically disillusioned by the rulers of this country and my complaint is not about the poor state of development of India post independence, I am not complaining about the prevalent corruption in India, many a pages have been wasted on this same topic and anything I add to it would be nothing but waste. The issue troubling me and for quite some time now is, the sort of monopoly we live in. Not for one moment does this India look like it is ruled by the Govt of the people, by the people, for the people. The country that we have been living since independence seems to be still a aristocracy. We have been ruled by a single family as long as anybody can remember and even that is not that big a deal, after all its US(not the US of A but we) who have been choosing this family to rule us, so nobody can say anything about this, after all this is the choice of the masses.

Looking back at time, when you flip through the pages of history books. You will find a lot of leaders and influential men who have graced this soil who have given their blood and sweat for the country.

BUT if I look around at the India, I live in, it doesnt seem so.The India that we live in doesnt seem like it was graced by so many great people. Instead it just seems that there was just 1 leader who got India the independence (Gandhi) and after that just 1 family (Nehru – Gandhi family) who has been the whole and soul of this India and the rest of the people should just be confined to the pages of history and nothing should be done to reinstate their memories in the minds of the Indian public. Frankly speaking, this never seemed too important an issue to me and was generally quite happy to know that almost every city in India has a Indira Nagar. But slowly, slowly you tend to get irritated when every new airport, every new road, every new flyover or the Sea-Link is  named after Mr. Rajiv Gandhi! Could somebody please tell me what is the great thing he did for this country! Why should we keep on naming each and every fucking thing in this country after him except may be coming to power because his more capable, more charismatic brother died in an accident. I agree that I might not be truly aware of the great deeds performed by him, owing to the fact that I wasnt even born during his tenure as PM and it being too recent to acquire importance in chapters of history, but a cursory glance of wiki page of Rajiv Gandhi shows
a) Currency Crisis
b) Bofors Scandal
c) Shah Bano Case

I may even agree to the fact that Nehru-Gandhi family have been great rulers and have ruled us in the best possible but SERIOUSLY is there a need to forget rest of the leaders! I don’t have any problem with honoring these people, they must have been really able people to have ruled this unbelievably large country for so long but the only thing I am worried about is, we would be leaving a legacy which would just talk about these few people (with the addition of  names of Sonia – Rahul Gandhi to the list in some time). I am really worried that kids of next generations wouldnt have heard the names of other people, whose stories we have grown up hearing. They would connect just one single family with the past of India.

Just wishing this doesnt happen 😐

Song of the Day :- Ajeeb Dastaan Hai ye

Corporate Life : The Beginning

Corporate Life, the word which we had been hearing since the time we entered the place named IIIT-H finally came true for us. Many of us finally had a bite of the fruit of job. Entering into a different world, a new arena has been quite a different experience for almost everyone. The same people who were just STUDENTS a few months back and had given no thought to any of the issues they would have to face in the outside world are now tackling each and every such issue head on. I am talking mostly on the behalf of the people who joined in June, so there might be many a men who wouldnt be able to relate too much with what I have to say.

For namesake, we are white collared guys, who go to the office in the morning sit in Air Conditioned rooms in front of the systems do something or the other. Come back in the evening do some BC and are ready for the next working day, while harbouring hopes of fast approach of the ensuing weekend, when they can relax, stretch their legs and breathe for some time in a relaxed atmosphere. Two days when they are free of all types of tensions of getting up, having bath, go someplace and sit for some specified hour.

Yet in the hearts of most of the people, there is still the student which has been their only mode of living for the past so many uncountable years of life, they still yearn for the people who they have been calling friends for the last 4 years, people who have been a part and parcel of their lives. As a result every weekend, you can see a flock of the graduating batch people going to hostel just for BC or to play basket ball or just to have a meal in the same messes which they have been cursing all these years or to have a dinner in the college canteen, the cleanliness and hygeine of which has been a topic of many a discourses.

Almost everybody has a place to call home and that’s why the hostel which had been the abode for the last 4 years, seems a bit like an alien space, the right with which they used to storm into the place has been replaced by a quite walk which is energized only when they see a face which has been a part of their lives and yet any of these 100s of people would give their leg and an arm to live in that God damn place. Its not that people are not enjoying their lives, everybody is enjoying the new found status, everybody is proud to be referred as Sir by the working staff giving them an altogether differen identity, people are excited at the prospect of finally working, finally doing things, and most importantly GETTING SALARIES. It finally feels great to be earning, feels great to be independent, being able to stop taking help from parents, All these things delight people to no end AND Yet the transition though seamless it may seem is not simple. The title of somebody can be changed from a student to a Software Engineer in a matter of minutes but is it so easy to take the student out of them.
Still the student is lurking deep inside the Software Engineer, still the guy yearns for a session or two of BC. Still the heart beats for the place called college, people are still concerned about college and state of affairs, though they may have signed their no dues and left the college officialy YET college is still as much a part of lives as it was 2 months back. The people havent been able to disconnect themselves from the college, they still blurt out abuses at the people and the administration. They may wish everyday to be unsubscribed from the students list and migrated to the alumni list so that the inflow of mails to their account decreases BUT they open each and every mail with as much interest as they used to do earlier.

People still get senti on seeing the farewell pics, people still can’t stop themselves from opening the folder if its name says Yearbook ’09. People have started revising their testimonials and asking people which incident they were referring to in that particular paragraph of the testimonial they wrote. People can’t stop themselves from opening the folder which says Signature Day. Guys may have turned to Gentleman for the world but its so very difficult to replace the guy so easily from the hearts.

A difference between the feelings people had while leaving school and college is that people are more matured and have seen things. Thats why there were promises made to self of being in touch with the school friends forever and ever but now after being through such a transition, people know that these are the stuffs which dreams are made of and no matter how hard you try you wont be able to be in touch with all of them, so people are more ready to face these harsh facts of life. Transition is a little less bumpier than it was some 4-5 years back when people bid an adieu to the friends who were classmates. Classmates gave way to batchmates which have finally given way to Colleagues and all that people understand is, Change is the law of Nature and nobody is complaining now. 🙂

Just a few random thoughts, I am not sure if others from the batch also feel the same or people from other batches have ever felt the same but some of these incidents are taken from the lives of different people so everybody to an extent is suffering the identity crisis. The struggle between the professional and the student is still going on. I am sure that the student will be replaced by the professional soon enough and then the evening drives to the college will also be replaced with a relaxed evening at HOME, till then let the turbulence ensue, after all life has to take its own path as it always has through all these journeys.

Song of the Day:- Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (Wat a song 🙂 )